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Sep, 6 2019

Morlot gave a bright and athletic account and did well to highlight Stravinsky’s [Petrushka] exploration of colour… Morlot’s aptitude for rhythmic nuance and slight tempo variations yielded a performance that felt both in-control and spontaneous

This is a very different orchestral journey from Adams’s previous masterpiece, but one that’s just as rewarding in this superb, beautifully recorded performance

Creating ambience is one of Morlot’s specialities, which he has consistently demonstrated over his years with the orchestra. He never disappoints in this regard, and this particular interpretation [of Debussy’s Nocturnes] was marked by extraordinary delicacy.

French conductor Ludovic Morlot kept it [Lili Boulanger’s D’un matin de printemps] all gloriously airborne, with just the right balance of chiselled precision and evanescent poetry.

Morlot gathered all the components together seamlessly from the resplendent choral fugues topped by brilliant silvery trumpets, to the elegant interludes of the vocal arias and duets, which often feature instrumental solos in counter-melodic obbligato.

He demonstrated a keen ear for his countrymen’s complex, tantalizing orchestrations — not just Debussy’s profoundly influential 1905 conjuring of the Mediterranean, but two lesser-known pieces by Hector Berlioz and an obscure gem by early-20th-century composer Albert Roussel

Morlot is, as always, a punctilious conductor. Listen, say, to the jittery precision with which the brass and piano volley starting at 1’05” in the fifth movement. And, in fact, in Morlot’s hands, the entire finale becomes a study in texture, the cumulative effect subtly shifting the work’s centre of gravity away from the third movement to provide a riveting and immensely satisfying conclusion.

His fine hold over the architecture of the piece [Lili Boulanger Psalm 130 (“Du fond de l’abime”)] paid dividends, drawing out the finest touches from the delicate instrumentation while applying full force in the terrifying, heartfelt pleas… This was a rich and soulful performance, with a great deal of substance.

Ludovic Morlot and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra produced iridescent colours and biting flamenco-inspired rhythms. [de Falla’s Nights in the Gardens of Spain]

The conductor Ludovic Morlot, departing next year as the music director of the thriving Seattle Symphony, began with a bracing account of Smetana’s “Dance of the Comedians.”… an exciting performance of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto.

Morlot made its themes of a divine cosmic resonance spellbinding [MESSIAEN Trois petites liturgies de la présence divine]. He drew out Messiaen’s potent contrasts of meter-defying melody and hectic rhythmic activity, of wild wonder and blissful contemplation. A very different cosmos might have come into view with a more old-fashioned reading of Beethoven’s Ninth. But … Morlot elicited a revelatory transparency of texture in the first movement. It illuminated many a fresh angle in Beethoven’s transformation of his material